Reducing height of Cupressus Leylandii Hedge

I inherited various Leylandii hedges when moving here. They were all removed bar 1 which did add something to the garden by breaking it up. The hedge has grown enormously this season for whatever reason (very good Spring/hellish wet summer). We have just finished trimming it and it's now got to monster proportions and difficult to cut the top as it's both tall and wide.
The tops have been reduced before but I can't remember when this was done. Am I too late in the season to chainsaw the top approx 3 ft off it? I live in Scotland and can have pretty severe winters.Would I be better to leave it till next Spring? I know it will look hellish for a couple of seasons but it's either top it or get it taken out which would involve JCBs and some mess! It's the hedge in the background of the photo which has grown A LOT since this photo was taken.Personally I'd like the sale of Leylandii banned. I have a lovely Beech hedge which is easy to maintain in comparison and even when it got neglected responded very well within a season to having 5 ft taken off it.

 

No, not too late Silu.....asap for me.
The main stems will not sprout again though but you are unlikely to see that I guess.
I understand...emphathise...with you. Used to tend a friend's garden where she had such a situation with leylandii. Enormously tall and wide......25' x 12'or more deep at least. I tackled this in stages to reduce height and width......hard back every year (knowing to retain lateral green growth and not cut beyond this) further trimming in between. There was a limit though and it remains still fairly large.
It was a heck of a battle to "get in there" using saws, loppers and hedgetrimmer.
Leylandii CAN look good if maintained from the start with the view that it will not get larger than 6', for example, but miss a year or so and suddenly you have a problem that is daunting.

 

@silu its not too late, its too early! Wait at least another month, until after the first frosts, then trim again in late Winter early Spring.

 

Thanks both! well difference of opinion. The hellish job (way beyond either I or daughter) may have to take place when I can persuade my tall male neighbour that he would REALLY like a nice bottle of malt! So that might be next week or next year. I was just wanting to know should I have the choice.

i totally agree with you @Verdun. I created a previous garden and was given (sort of "fell of the back of a lorry") about 20 Leylandii . I wouldn't have chosen them but as I was given them for nothing I made a hedge out of them and was fastidious at keeping it trimmed, pruned it to the height I wanted and didn't let it get out of hand.

Still, by their very nature they will appeal to people who want instant results, don't we all?, but perhaps not that keen on the maintenance of a garden. The likes of Beech, both green and copper make fabulous hedges and are so forgiving if you miss a year maintaining them. The green Beech which is what I have retain most of their leaves....don't think copper does? I say this as I have 2 absolutely stunning ancient copper Beech which make a fair old mess come Autumn with humongous amounts of leaves to collect, so doubt a hedge of them would react differently.
Privet isn't terribly exciting but much easier to cope with and another lovely hedge is Holly. I have about 20 different Holly trees which I am very fond of and they grow faster than many people believe they do. Ok not as fast as Leylandii, what does! but if you bought fairly decent sized Holly plants you'd have a reasonable hedge before too long. Only making suggestions in the hope it might persude others to NOT plant Leylandii and save themselves grief in years to come
We have the tallest, longest Beech hedge in the world close to where I live, it's some sight.

 

Thanks @shiney. Yes you are spot on and it does take ages to cover over the bald spots! We took it down by about 4 ft must be 8 or 9 years ago now and it's only looked semi ok from the bathroom window for the last 3 odd years.I don't think the main stem has regrown from the last massacre so hoping to only have to take it back down to where it was previously cut. Sort of wishing now that I had removed this hedge along with the rest years ago and planted something else in it's place. On top of being fairly high maintenance, you've then got to dispose of the trimmings which in my case is A LOT. They take forever to break down so don't tend to put them on the compost heap. I was putting most of them on the bank opposite which belongs to the farmer. I didn't think he would either mind or notice. Wrong on both counts so now have to hurl them in the trailer and take them up to our wood and dump them there.

 

Having bought a house in the past with these awful trees I'd pay anything to get rid of them and plant something nice, sorry but been there done it.

 

A shredder silu?
Then use as a mulch....autumn is good time for this

 

Thanks both re ideas for the trimmings. Having a "slightly" wetter climate than where you live shiney they'd be doing well to ever get dry enough to burn! We have burnt them in the past if we had enough dry material to get them going.
I have a very good Viking shredder which I use to shred up prunnings which I do use as a mulch/weed suppressant on certain beds (ones with no membrane). About 4 years ago I gave in and covered my shrub beds in membrane and bark chip which saves me multitudinous hours of weeding. The down sides is I have to cover the membrane with material which breaks down as slowly as possible so as to not clog the membrane and I can't add the huge amounts of manure and leaf mould to the beds as I used to.
This Autumn I may well have to burn the leaves which I don't want to do but I have not used the leaf mould from 2 years ago yet and have a massive pile from last year as well.

 

I would suggest reducing it in height to about 1 inch.

 

But that would kill it NCFCrazy .....()

 

I'm reading this thread with great interest! I have leylandii planted across my back garden which we put in about 10 years ago, due to problem neighbours - one of whom had a penchant for watching my little girl from a ladder in his garden, but not in a good way. That and many other reasons made it fairly urgent to get higher screening in quickly!

I have let it go over the last three years and it is tall and not very thick. As the back garden is south facing the trees only block light into our garden, but in winter they will be a problem for my new greenhouse. I was thinking about having a go at taking about three feet off them, and trimming the sides, but not back to the brown bits. However, I'm not sure when to do it - now, or after first frosts

 

I would certainly trim them (not so certain about reducing height timing) asap with you living in the same neck of the woods as I do @Irmemac . All my conifers which need pruning are trimmed no later than now. Do be careful tho re going back into brown wood as Leylandii is very unforgiving if you do. I had a slight mishap with the hedge trimmer on 1 of the lollipops (see photo of "lollipops" well that's what we call them) about 4 years ago and it's only now that enough green from other branches have covered over my mess! The conifer to the right in the photo is no longer there having been dealt with by the chainsaw. I would be delighted to get rid of these Leylandii too except they do serve a useful purpose of protecting the strip of grass by the road. if they weren't there people would drive all over the grass to get past each other and the wide tractors would gaily just drive over it too.
Funny how we both have Leylandii to try and stop people doing things to annoy us!
In all the years I have been gardening I have never bought a conifer, I really don't like the majority of them much. However others do like them so vive la difference. I can see the comment made by @NCFCcrazy I'm not the only 1 who has a dislike

 

It really isnt a problem trimming or cutting leylandii now. Tough as old boots, job done and even time for some regrowth this year.